For dinner we’re eating a creamy, savory baked polenta. The polenta was slowly simmered in whole milk and water then poured into a baking dish and topped first with a tomato, crimini mushroom, and vidalia onion sauce, then with jalapeno jack and havarti cheeses, and finally with seasoned asparagus. The whole dish was baked until golden and bubbly then finished with a sprinkling of diced sun-dried tomatoes.

A: oh my. this was one rich, yet deeelicious meal!T: it was delish. Some of the best damn grits I’ve ever had.A: sshhhhh! don’t call them grits! we’re trying to sound more sheshe! call it “baked polenta”.T: but of course, darling… of course. How could I be so crude? We have long since left the South. We’re proper folks, now.A: ha! proper my ass! does sheshe have to be proper?T: If you have to ask… you’ll never know, darling.A: until you threw in “darling” i thought you were starting to sing an old red hot chili peppers song.T: Hmmph! Perhaps if it were 1991 and I were speaking aloud rather than typing. Then you would have been on to something. Ok, moving on. The grits- er polenta. It was quite tasty. The texture of the polenta was smooth, moist, and yet firm. I actually thought you had put some cheese in the grits…A: but alas, you thought wrong! and really there was hardly any butter in the grits either. only a tablespoon or two for the whole dish! but i always make my polenta/grits with whole milk and water so it gives them a creaminess you don’t always acheive with water alone. this was certainly not a… ah… healthy meal… but my god it was tasty. it had everything… bacon, cheese, whole milk, butter… and some veggies and a pseudo-ish grain. mmm.T: Yeah, it was rich. Although it wasn’t too filling, so I was able to put down quite a bit A: i’ll admit this: when i pulled it out of the oven and saw some grease pooling on top i took immediate action and soaked it all up with a handy dandy paper towel. hopefully that helped some!T: Well I certainly had no complaints about this one. I give it a 4.6/5. Flavor-wise, it was superb. I guess it could have scored higher if it had been a touch healthier, but… eh. I don’t care too much about that. It tasted good, I liked it mucho, and I will happily gobble it up if you ever make it again.A: now you know i rarely… if ever… make the exact same thing twice. but, i do think we’ll be seeing this dish in some form in the future. i really dug it too. i am actually giving it the exact same score as you! 4.6/5. and pretty much for the same reasons… if the meal had been a touch healthier as well as that tasty it could have rated higher, but hey! we’re young! it’ll be decades before we need open heart surgery.T: yeah and by then there will be little robots that come through the air and fix it for us anyway, so who gives a damn about heart health? Word to the wise (from the really wise): eat beef now.

Do you seriously never make the exact same meal twice? But what if it kicked ass? What if the flavors you created melded into this magial taste sensation that made babies cry and angels sing and got you naturally high off of its awesomeness?

I’m the same as aria- I never have polenta baked because I just lose patience an eat it straight off. Hmm… I just found a great new store near us which seels some awesome stuff and I bet they have proper polenta there. I an see some baked rabbit with polenta for dinner this weekend.

I like your life philosophy. Eat now and rely on technology to save you later. I really hope they know how to build new livers by the time I’m 50.

i just recently came across this page, and how cute are you two?! =) if I didn’t waste all day procrastinating on a paper i have to write, i’d skim through your page more but i’ll save that for another time. you just got yourself another reader. cheers!

Really enjoying reading your blog. This looks delicious. I have a slight block when it comes to polenta. I am not convinced that I like it, but this looks so delicious that I will definately give it a try and see if I am converted – I have a feeling I may be!

Tonye, you ROCK for still coming to visit us after I neglected to post the recipe for you!! Actually, I generally don’t like to write recipes for things that I made more than a week ago since my memory gets a little shady and I want the results to be perfect! What I can do is try to make something similar in the near future and post it as a new post! I’ll try to get around to that in the next week or two.

That would be outstanding! I can’t believe you’d actually make it again, I made it a year ago based on the description you gave on this post and it was the most amazing dish my friends ever tried. HUGE HIT! Since then I’ve been wanting to get the recipe so I can make the Amanda original version. I became an official fan of this site after seeing this dish!

This looks like bliss to me. My partner has been asking me to cook polenta for sometime. I have been saying “ok. ok….I am waiting to I find a yummy enough recipe”. Well I have now, thanks. I would really appreciate it if you could forward this one to me.
Thanks in anticipation ~ Anni

well…that resolved my cooking for tomorrow :D. You know, I grew up on polenta basically, even though we make it a bit different here (involves scalding your hands because you have to knead it with them) if you want to really make it “old style”…have eaten it classical style (yoghurt and or sour cream or plain milk :)) but have never baked it…always thought that it might dry it out too much…this not only looks amazing but sounds amazing too :). Like the bit with milk / water cooking…you are my Prometheus(es) :).